Any nation without infrastructural facilities denies its citizens certain socio-economic rights, and such a city will suffer setbacks in carrying out its statutory responsibilities. CHIKA OKEKE writes on the absence of amenities in the satellite towns of the capital territory.
Abuja is a tale of two cities. The city centre where the rich live is provided with good infrastructure, and looks very neat and tidy. There is the sign of governance everywhere. Not so for the? satellite towns. Here, bad roads, blocked drainages and, in most cases, gory sighs of refuse scattered everywhere stares at one wherever he passes.
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It is worthy of note that? the Satellite Towns Development Agency (STDA) was transferred to the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) as the Department of Satellite Towns Infrastructure (DSTI) by the FCT Administration through the circular FCTA/EXT/MPD/S.06/2, of August? 5, 2008.
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The statutory responsibility of the STDA transferred to DSTI are as follows: to open up or develop the satellite towns by providing infrastructural facilities to the teeming rural dwellers, thereby improving their living standards; provide enabling environment through the provision of basic amenities which would further reduce the pressure in the city; develop and upgrade the satellite towns likewise to develop linkages between the satellite towns and the Federal Capital City (FCC). All these functions are essentially for the development of the satellite towns, development of the rural areas through the provision of link roads, potable water, electricity, development of the relocation and resettlement areas.
In the FCT, much emphasis is placed on the development of city centres while the satellite towns and other rural communities have been largely neglected. This has incited responses from people to the extent that they wonder if the territory was meant only for the rich. For the fact that satellite towns like Bwari, Kuje, Dobi, Karshi are scarcely developed, people throng to such areas in search of lower cost of rent and to cut down the high cost of living experienced at the city centre.
Those who live in such outskirt towns often lack the basic infrastructural facilities expected of a capital territory which should be provided by the FCT administration. This ugly trend has persisted and the private developers have seized the opportunity to initiate ways of making good money from the residents. Each succeeding administration usually makes promises that it would develop the satellite towns but that is where it ends – just talk – as little or no effort is made in that direction. So those who live in such areas – and they constitute over 70 percent of Abuja residents – are denied? basic amenities such as pipe-borne water, good road network, regular electricity and, in some places, dependable hospitals.
Infrastructure
On February this year, a task force was inaugurated by the FCT minister, Senator Bala Mohammed to fast -track the completion of Kuje-Gwagwalada road. The team was headed by the immediate past FCT minister of state, Captain Caleb Olubolade (rtd). The idea was to reduce the traffic gridlock experienced by motorists plying the busy Gwagwalada-Kuje road.
When Leadership Sunday inspected the ongoing road construction at Kuje-Gwagwalada, it was discovered that the construction work had been abandoned as no
contractor or even casual workers were seen at the site.
Going a step further to Chibiri village where Crane Builders and Engineering Limited, the contractor handling the road project used as a site, the area was deserted except for two security men guarding the tractors and some implements. When the reporter asked the security men about?? the whereabouts of the contractors, the elderly security man in his 60s said, “They have gone to the village. They come to work anytime they like but I don’t know the next time they will resume work again.”
The ongoing Dobi-Izom road in Gwagwalada area council is another road project that is witnessing a slow pace of work.
The chairman of Gwagwalada area council, Zakari Angulu Dobi, said that FCDA projects were virtually absent except recently when it awarded some road projects in the council.
“Considering the projects that the area council is handling, by the time Gwagwalada residents feel the presence of FCDA, the community will enjoy a lot of projects. Taking a critical look at some projects that were awarded by FCDA, the contractors are yet to be mobilised to the site. Driving through the Dobi road on a rainy day is terrible. Once there is the slightest rainfall, it will prevent members of the community from coming out from their houses. The FCDA should take it upon them and go round to inspect jobs committed to contractors to ensure effective result. They will also see what the community is passing through due to bad road network.”
He appealed to FCTA to provide services in the council to augment the administration’s developmental projects as that will make the residents feel the impact of democracy dividends. ?
“With the challenges confronting the residents, I want to call on the FCT minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, to come to the aid of Gwagwalada area council by ensuring that the contracts awarded within the town were carried out, especially the Gwagwalada-Dobi-Izom road that serves as a linkage between Niger State and FCT. The road, when completed, will also reduce the traffic gridlock experienced at Abuja-Lokoja expressway.”
?On whether the FCDA has carried out developmental project in the council during the previous years, he said: “I can only account for the period when I assumed office. Except for the projects that have to do with partnerships like Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Fadama II – III projects, no project was carried out by FCDA in the council. But based on our complaints, recently, some projects were considered by FCDA and awarded to contractors, like the road construction. Awarding a project is one thing and following it up to ensure that it is executed is another task. The residents appreciate their efforts but we want them to complete some of the ongoing projects to ease the difficulties faces by the people.”
The All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) candidate for Abuja South Federal Constituency, at the last House of Representatives election, Dr Daniel Aliyu Baka, expressed dismay that residents at the rural areas struggle for drinking water with animals due to the absence of pipe-borne water. He described the situation as an eyesore that is not befitting of a great nation like Nigeria, especially its capital territory.
Baka also drew the attention of the federal government to provide adequate infrastructural facilities in Abuja South to reduce the influx of people to the city centres.
“In the villages, there is no drinking water and human beings are sharing water with animals. All the developmental plans are focused on Abuja North while Abuja South has been largely ignored; its level of infrastructural development is not reflective of the status of Abuja,” he lamented.
?A resident of Kuje area council, Mallam Idris Adewusi, wondered why government neglected the rural dwellers and preferred to develop only the city centre. He said that people at the grassroots also contributed their quota in the local economy by producing crops and food items that feed the territory and sourrounding states. He appealed to the administration to provide succour to the rural dwellers.
Another resident, Mrs Josephine Umeh, a resident of Gwagwalada area council, frowned at government’s one-sided approach to developing the territory? in favour of the city area.
“It is very worrisome that government has failed to live up to its responsibilities by failing to bring development to these areas and rather focuses more resources to pad the high brow areas that are already reasonably developed. This is very common in Nigeria due to corruption. I am making a passionate appeal to the FCT administration to extend their developmental projects to the satellite towns. We need a good road network, hospitals, pipe-borne water and good houses,” she said.
2011 FCT Budget
The National Assembly recently approved a budget of N116 billion for the FCT Administration, while it also targets N195.2 billion as the expected revenue? in the 2011 fiscal year, intended to provide basic infrastructure and services to the residents.
The administration targets the sum of N48, 144,220,270 from Internally Generated Revenue(IGR); N12 billion from Excess Crude Account; N33.5 billion from taxes to be collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and N5.5 billion returns from various investments from equity holdings in the Abuja Investment Company Limited.
Out of N116 billion budget proposal forwarded by President Goodluck Jonathan to the National Assembly, the administration is to spend the sum of N106,548,119,450 (92 percent) on completion of ongoing projects and the balance of N9,597,616,680 (eight percent) on new projects.
The sum of N2.5 billion was also mapped out for security services in Abuja. The FCT minister said the fund was expected to assist the security agencies to offset their running cost and procure crime-fighting equipment including the Close Circuit Television scanners(CCTV), vehicles and other communication gadgets.
He said the money? was meant to augment the equipment and personnel requirement of the police and other security agents, in order to make Abuja a pride of the nation as adequate security would be put in place to safeguard life and property in the area.
The director of DSTI, Engr. Obiefuna Oduche, would not speak on the agency without the consent of? his boss, the executive secretary of FCDA.
Oduche said: “Who sent you. Your office; is it owned by government or private? You have to follow the order. You have to meet the chief executive secretary of FCDA who will now direct me to listen to you and to give you any information. Without that, it will amount to insubordination. I am under somebody and cannot be talking without telling the person. We know that bureaucracy and Freedom of Information is real but he must be aware that I am dishing out something that may be published because when they see it, they will trace it to me. I will be summoned and queried,” he stated.
The fact remains that for Nigeria to become the largest economy by year 20: 2020 as this administration is canvassing, there must be visible infrastructure on ground that reaches across the city, satellite towns and rural communities. Except that, the transformational agenda cannot be realised and many Nigerians will continue to wallow in abject poverty occasioned by inadequate infrastructure. ?
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